God is Good

God is so good. I have had a wonderful past few days and I have really been feeling more at home here. I know God sent us here for a reason and I'm finally feeling open to finding out what that reason is. If you couldn't tell from past posts, this trip has been hard for me but after having some wonderful conversations with other staff at the hostel and with God, I'm finally letting go of what I thought this trip was going to be and I'm embracing what is here in front of me and finding that it's really awesome!

ps. 3 out of the 5 prisoners that escaped have been caught last I heard.

Gloria's! Our new bestie.

Chillin in Suva

Public Transportation

More suva

Preparing for surprise birthday party for Arieta and Jim

Liza's room

The older girls waiting for the birthday party

Cake!

Fijian Food!

Tiniest gecko ever

Signing/singing of God Bless America

New Pictures!

Before I post new pictures..... just wanted to let you all know that there has been a prison break in our area here in Suva....... not sure if it happened this past Tuesday or the one before that, but the prisoner(s) have still not been caught.

So on to happier thoughts! Pictures!

As always, thank you for your prayers!!

Lindsay and Eliza

First Day Off

Bula! So today is our first real day off!

We went into town and went straight to a coffee shop. Gloria Jean. She's our new best friend. We are now currently in an internet cafe trying to catch up on all our email stuff. This is our first experience with this kind of thing!

We are hoping to get to the post office today, and we have no idea where that is actually.... Also, we want to get some nice scenery pictures today as well. You can see the Pacific Ocean and the mountains from town and it is a stunning view. I'm hoping we can make the most of our day!

Things are getting better in general here, still struggling with food issues a bit but we are finding our place here and getting into a routine which is nice. The kids are still awesome.

No pictures today unfortunately though because we are, like I said, at an internet cafe. But soon! This weekend we will probably be able to upload some more.

Love the prayers!! Thank you!!

Lindsay and Eliza

Week One

So we have been here a week!

Things were hard to get used to and we still have some getting used to but things are definitely getting better. We are getting better at sign and we are making friends! Everyone is eager to teach us sign and to communicate with us so that is helping but its frustrating when we just can't figure out what they are trying to say and they can't understand us either.

We took our first trip into the city with Mela on Friday and it was awesome! We bought some American food and had coffee!!!! That really boosted our spirits.

After the celebration for the Paraolympics gold medalist, we found out we were in the paper! There is a picture of us and a few others from the school in the Fiji Times from Sept. 14. Very exciting!!

Also, the other day, some of the older girls taught us how to wash our clothes by hand!! I still think we are doing it wrong but we are trying. They are all so helpful here, it blows my mind.

We have been doing a lot of playing with the kids, they love sports. The other day, I, Lindsay, was playing soccer with some kids (I know, hard to believe) and one kid kicked me so hard in the shin that it instantly turned into a massive egg. It is still swollen, 3 days later, and badly bruised... now I remember why I don't play sports.

I will post more pictures soon!

Lindsay and Eliza

Paraolympics

So yesterday we went to a celebration for the only Fijian to ever win a gold medal in the Paraolympics, Iliesa Delana. It was so cool! The president of Fiji was there also which was really exciting! All the special schools were invited to go and because of Iliesa's win, the government made a speech saying that there should be more focus on the kids with disabilities! I was impressed. Funding for the "regular" schools is provided right away, but funding for special schools comes months later. I think that this monumental feat is finally going to make some positive changes for these amazing kids.

There were also a lot of cultural traditions incorporated into the event like hula dancing, making a ceremonial drink of some kind and the presenting of a massive roasted pig. It was insane. A lot of primary schools had prepared traditional dances and songs as entertainment for the event, they were really good! Some of them danced to American songs also. So cute!

The food situation hasn't really improved but we are remaining hopeful that we can figure something out soon.

 

One of the deaf students

The massive roasted pig!

Another student with the Australian Speech Pathologist for our school.

Eliza and one of the older girls.

Lindsay and several of the other students and Mela, one of the staff!

We Made It!

So it was a long journey, but we finally made it!!

It is not quite like what we expected but we are quickly learning. The kids are amazing and really excited we are here. They love teaching us new signs and I think we are picking up on them pretty fast.

The food is going to take some getting used to but I think we can manage.

I haven't taken many pictures yet but as soon as I do I will upload them here :)

Prayers still needed!! Thank you!!

Lindsay and Eliza

Airport!

And we're off!

Today is Eliza's 19th birthday, she's super excited to spend it on an airplane...

The next 24 hours are going to be a little rough but we have plenty of things to keep us busy!
Liza is able to fall asleep anywhere, unlike myself, so I'll probably have a million pictures of her sleeping on the plane. Be on the lookout for those!

Again, we really appreciate your prayers :)

Lindsay & Eliza

Last Day in America

So, blogs... blogging? As you will probably figure out, this is our first experience with a blog and we really have no idea what to do with it, but we thought this would be a great place to keep everyone who wanted to know up to date with our trip to Fiji.

Today is our last day in the States and we are still feeling like this is all a dream, it hasn't hit us yet that we will soon be on a 24 hour trip to the other side of the world...

We will try to post here as often as we can, with TONS of pictures of course.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!!

Bon Voyage!

Love,
Lindsay and Liza